Official figures revealed employment rose by 174,000 to 31.77 million in the three months to the end of July – the first full month of data post the Referendum vote.
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Still, the nine-member panel said “the contours of the economic outlook following the European Union referendum had not changed”.
LONDON-Unemployment in the United Kingdom fell in the three months through July, a sign the British labor market held up well following the country’s June vote to leave the European Union. Last month, it reduced its main rate to a record low of 0.25 percent to help shore up the economy.
“This is the latest piece of evidence which shows the economy has fared better than expected since June’s referendum”.
He went on to say: “These labour market figures continue to show the utmost importance of Scotland and the United Kingdom as a whole retaining membership of the European single market, which will enable us to build on this encouraging progress, and ensure that everyone in Scotland benefits from economic growth”.
However, Paul Hollingsworth, UK economist at Capital Economics, warned that despite the positive figures some slowdown in the pace of spending growth looked likely.
The Federation of Small Business said it was clear companies were taking a “business as usual” approach to hiring.
The number of Scots out of work and claiming jobseeker’s allowance also by 500 between July and August to 53,500, which is 17,000 lower than a year ago.
Retail sales volumes were down 0.2 per cent on July, which had seen a jump of 1.9 per cent in the strongest performance for the month in 14 years. On a monthly basis, retail sales including auto fuel fell 0.2%, against expectations for a 0.4% drop and 1.9% gain in the previous month.
The claimant count is treated with some caution by economists as the move to Universal Credit has made it much harder to calculate.
One interesting nugget in the employment figures concerns the number of people employed in the public sector.
The former chancellor, George Osborne, often spoke about the need to “rebalance” the economy.
Both manufacturing and the service sector, which includes businesses such as transportation, restaurants, and computing and makes up almost 80 percent of Britain’s economy, saw notable declines in the PMI survey, the Financial Times reports.
“The ACT budget update released today demonstrates that the ACT labour market is in a healthy position – with 3500 jobs created in Canberra in 2015-16 – exceeding previous growth estimates”, Mr Barr said. It was the lowest level since comparable records began in 1999.
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Because the survey was conducted from May to July, it carries just one month of data following Britain’s referendum on the EU June 23.
